2/09/2011 @ 6:00PM

A Guy's Fantasy

The fantasy sports industry is today a roughly $1-billion-a-year business, counting 30 million players. But the roots of the business trace back 50 years ago this year, when a 22-year-old New Yorker named Hal Richman introduced a cards-and-dice board game called Strat-O-Matic Baseball. The game, which eventually branched into other sports, remained the fantasy industry standard for close to three decades–until Rotisserie and online leagues moved in. Here are memories of some influential sports figures:

Bob Costas

NBC, MLB sports broadcaster:

In fantasy sports you peg the outcome to what the players do. In Strat-O-Matic you were playing your own game. It was far more sophisticated than any other game.

Daniel Okrent

Writer, considered the founder of Rotisserie Baseball:

I was an avid Strat-O-Matic player in my 20s. When I moved from New York City in 1979, I was missing baseball, so I started a group in which everyone had played Strat-O-Matic or one of the other games. We began with $250 and raised it when we expanded the roster.

Doug Glanville

Former major league outfielder:

It was all part of my brother’s grand plan to make me into a major league player: Wiffle ball in the back yard and Strat-O-Matic inside. It taught me the tactical side of baseball. I still play the computerized version in a league with my brother.

John Dewan

Cofounder of Stats,now owned by News Corp.:

I’m an actuary by trade, and I credit Strat-O-Matic for my career change from insurance to sports. I started playing in a league in 1975, and I’m still playing in the same league today, now sometimes via Skype.